Renaixensa

Catalan literature

In 1813 appeared the Gramatica y apología de la llengua cathalana (“Grammar and Apology of the Catalan Language”) of Josep Pau Ballot; its publication heralded the Renaixença (“Rebirth”), the literary and linguistic renaissance that characterized the Romantic period in Catalonia. Bonaventura Carles Aribau’s “La...”

Catalonia

...to Carlism. The resurgence really began in the 1850s, however, when serious efforts were made to revive Catalan as a living language with its own press and theatre—a movement known as the Renaixença (“Rebirth”). Catalan nationalism became a serious force after 1876, when the defeat of the Carlists led the church to transfer its support to the movement for autonomy....

Gaudí

As an admired, if eccentric, architect, Gaudí was an important participant in the Renaixensa, an artistic revival of the arts and crafts combined with a political revival in the form of fervent anti-Castilian “Catalanism.” Both movements sought to reinvigorate the way of life in Catalonia that had long been suppressed by the Castilian-dominated and Madrid-centred government...